Fraxinus parryi

Chaparral ash

Family: Oleaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.2

Chaparral ash is a rare (CNPS 2B.2) California native shrub found in southern San Diego County in canyon and chaparral slope habitats at elevations around 600 meters. Flowering from February to March, this plant produces cream-white flowers in clusters with delicate, glandular-puberulent bracts. Growing as a multi-stemmed shrub to 3 meters tall with smooth gray bark and cylindric to four-angled twigs, it develops an attractive branching structure. Its leaves are simple or compound with three leaflets, each 2 to 5 centimeters long, ovate to rounded, with green upper surfaces and pale undersides. The distinctive fruit is a broad, flat wing-like structure 22 to 30 millimeters long, creating an elegant silhouette against chaparral landscapes.

Habitat: Canyons, slopes, margins of mixed chaparral

Bloom period: Feb-Mar

Elevation: 600 m

Bioregions: PR (s San Diego Co.)

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.